Hi there,

The following is based on my experience, and it may or may not be useful to others. Let's hope for the former.

SO, you have created your mod. You spent time on it, perhaps forgoing more important matters because, let's face it, modding IS addictive. When you see how those game changes you used to dream about can be made, by YOU, wow man...that feeling is so satisfying. So, again, you've created your mod, you're proud of yourself and now it is time to show your little boy to the world. This is a list DON'Ts that you MUST avoid like a plague if your intention is to get some exposure:

DON'T #1) If you upload on Nexus (who wouldn't?) for the love of god upload a picture with your mod. It doesn't mattter if your mod only makes gameplay changes and pictures are irrelevant to convey what you did. Pictures matter because, if you do not include even a single one, your mod will NOT appear in the LATEST FILES list of the nexus' front page, which means...people will have no idea that your mod even exist!

DON'T #2) If you make a thread here in the official forums, no matter what you do, stick a [REL] or a [RELz] in the title of the topic. This is crucial because it helps forum members distinguish ideas/requests from ACTUAL mods.

DON'T# 3) People are generally scared of walls of text. Even if the changes you've made are better explained with plain test, try to make the whole thing reading-friendly by using big titles, colours and even spoiler tags that people can click on if they want to know more about something. The idea is to avoid making your description page appear cluttered.

Now, to conclude, let me show you some figures of a REAL mod that failed to avoid these 3 simple DON'Ts:

Name: 'POTENT -Perk Overhaul To Enhance Two-handers-'
Uploaded: 10th of October
Nexus figures: 8 downlaods (4 unique), 2 comments (1 by the author), 0 endorsemants
Offical forums thread figures: 0 comments, 0 times read

So you've seen it guys, do NOT fall into the 3 DON'Ts if you want your mod to have some chances of becoming popular someday!

Cool. I'd also throw in writing descriptions that don't actually explain what the mod does. I've seen mods with vague titles and a description that boils down to just a "how to install" section. Also, if you're uploading a unique mesh or texture, include more than one freakin' picture with some weird, confusing filters on it. Also have the pictures actually focus on the item in question. That means no in-game pictures that have more than three mods in them, unless the focus is actually on the new item.

Also mods with cluttered/non-standard directory structures in the ZIP file. Those are so annoying.

Since when did releasing mods become a popularity contest?

Your example of a real "failure" assumes that the author was attempting to create a highly popular mod. If it failed to attract much attention, but attracting attention was never a goal, then it's not really a failure because no attempt was made in the first instance.

For a thread which is titled
3 Important pointers on how NOT to release a mod

I'd expect far more important and pertinent information such as including well-structured readmes, information on terms-of-use (including if you disappear), structuring the archive well, etc. Not this marketing rubbish. Yes, if you want exposure, the things mentioned are important, but "exposure optimisation" should be the last item in the long checklist of what needs to be done before/during release.

Ninja, I think you are reading more into this than the OP intended and sounded a bit scold-y, where it is not warranted. I just read his post and did not interpret it at all that he was talking about popularity contests. Any mod-maker would like the mod he or she spent time and effort on to find it's proper audience and get used/played. Otherwise, why publish your mod at all? I know quite a few people who mod and do not publish them but the ones that do would like to see their work used. There is nothing wrong with getting info out there, and a thread with useful do and don't info based on various modders experiences may be very helpful to others.

OP - if you post a thread and want to change the title, just use the report button and ask a moderator to edit the title for you.